When my kid was a toddler we were standing in a street and she suddenly pointed at a group of people that looked like Pakistanis or Indians or thereabouts and asked loudly “Why do those people have dark skin?”
The entire street stopped and looked at us just waiting for my answer.
That wasn’t the time to go into long explanations about immigration, adoption, skin pigmentation or UV radiation.
I answered loud and clear “That’s because their parents had dark skin”.
Everyone shrugged and continued their business, but I’d like to think that my simple answer was a lesson for all the people who were ready to get offended from either a racist answer or from an overly political correct answer.
Even without hustle culture I’m not going to be as motivated as a crackhead looking for a fix because I am not powered by addiction. I’m more motivated to sleep and eat way too much pie so a pothead would be better competition.
“Oh, your job isn’t paying enough? Well, have you tried stealing from your family? Your grandma has a social security check coming, right? Oh, your family doesn’t talk to you anymore, huh? Well have you tried selling your neighbor’s car stereo? What about his propane grill? How about stealing tube socks from Walmart and trying to sell those on the street to anyone who walks by? Still not cutting it, huh? I don’t know man, maybe it’s time to try sucking some dicks.”
These memes seem a lot less clever if you’ve ever been close to someone whose life got snowed under by addiction, or lived in a neighborhood that has a crack problem. Seeing real crackheads really hustling is pretty fucking bleak. They’re not getting ahead. They’re not winning. They’re burning everything with even a shred of value to service their addiction, including family and personal relationships.
I don’t know, maybe it’s a very apt metaphor for capitalism, and what our capitalist system expects of us, but I have no desire to trade the people and things that make my life bearable just so I can brag about having a couple extra dollars in the bank.
Work like it’s a crippling addiction - it’s not as though crackheads have miserable lives, their bodies literally falling apart as their minds figuratively do the same, until they either muster the incredible willpower to endure the intense suffering required to drop the habit, enduring lifelong consequences, or die an early death.
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